It's hard to dislike Lee Fields. He's an almost archetypal jobbing soul singer in the shouter/grunter/talker/improviser tradition of Otis Redding and James Brown, and he's currently undergoing something of a revival as a Sharon Jones collaborator and featured vocalist for Eurohouse hits. Fields's shows are by all accounts a lot of fun, and his obscure '70s singles have been championed by SoulSides and other exquisite arbiters of cratedigging.

On My World, the Truth & Soul production team use him as a vehicle to indulge their Thom Bell and Norman Whitfield fantasies, encouraged by a market that has rewarded the equally hard-working Jones for her Dap-Kings material. Although the producers have mentioned the Delfonics and the Stylistics as explicit models for the whole project, that vibe is mostly achieved in the instrumental tracks ("Expressions Theme," "Last Ride"), where the ad hoc Expressions get to paint sweet landscapes without the distracting rasp of the singer. Otherwise, Fields proves versatile within his limited range, essaying a Sly-esque ballad ("Honey Dove"), a Godfatherish lament over a budget Whitfield backing track ("My World"), and a thoroughly worthy Supremes cover ("My World Is Empty Without You"), where he effortlessly channels Jimmy Ruffin atop a clever Axelrodian arrangement.

The one problem here is that any familiarity with the material being paid homage only underscores Fields's lack of true star quality. You wonder, for example, what James Brown would have done with "Money I$ King" if the Truth & Soulers had become his Rick Rubins before he booked the great Apollo in the sky.

Michael Jackson and his fears At the dead end of a decade when everyone was too discouraged to wonder if pop had a center, Michael Jackson's Off the Wall (1979) gathered up disillusioned factions of fans as confidently as it punted four singles into the Top 10.

Darrell Nulisch | Just For You This Boston-based blues and soul singer’s seventh album might seem an update of the elegantly funky Stax sound, with its deep grooves and smartly harmonized horns.

Soul brothers Hunter and Lidell's music shares something deeper than demographics: an abiding interest in the classic Southern R&B of Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. Both men prove that blue-eyed soul didn’t die with Hall & Oates.

Come on home What's that about the apple and the tree? With college degree in hand, Lyle Divinsky returns to his Portland stomping grounds with a debut CD, Traveling Man , that not only features dad Phil Divinsky's drummer (Marty Joyce), bassist (Peter Masterson), and guitarist (Andy Argondizza) from the ToneKings, but plays in a Motown/R&B sandbox.

2008 Listravaganza! We are not at all sick of bands with animal names yet and seem to have a soft spot for Erykah Badu that we kept very hush about all year.

Diamond in the rough If today’s pop-music business is, as it was in the ’60s, driven largely by songwriters and producers who choose singers to put across their latest concoctions hoping for a hit, why does so much current pop feel so utterly charmless? Jackie DeShannon live in London (YouTube)

Nashville underground Solomon Burke’s no stranger to Nashville. Music city dos: Where to go in Nashville. By Ted Drozdowski

Review: Anthony Hamilton | The Point of it All Anthony Hamilton is like a latter-day Bill Withers, with a gruff, straight-talkin' voice that can holler at you from across the room and then downshift to a gentler, fatherly tone once you draw close.

Boston music news: February 2, 2007 Local filmmaker Chris DiNunzio was working on a short horror movie titled “Miscreant” when he decided to take a break and help out his older brother Ralph, guitarist in the ’80s-’90s Boston hardcore punk band Wrecking Crew.

Guest lists What small, private lists like this remind us is that big, honking institutional lists are largely fictions, mirages of a consensus that no longer exists, if it ever really did in the first place.

Neo-new-what? The real album of the year is a disc that probably didn’t cross many people’s paths in 2006, a Rhino comp titled Future Retro that pairs various DJs/electronicists (Richard X, Tiga, the Crystal Method) with classic new-wave tracks by the Cure, Echo & the Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, and New Order.

IAN KING | PANIC GRASS AND FEVER FEW | March 16, 2010 Just a few weeks after we reviewed the belated release of African Head Charge's latest, another, more recent gem from the always rewarding sonic laboratory of Adrian Sherwood arrives.

JOE CUBA | EL ALCALDE DEL BARRIO | March 09, 2010 Fania kicks off 2010 with what is sure to end up being one of the year's most important archival releases of Latin music.

ALEJANDRO FRANOV | DIGITARIA | March 03, 2010 Alejandro Franov is an Argentine multi-instrumentalist who's been involved in the more serious, and often experimental, side of the Buenos Aires music scene since he was a teen in the late 1980s.